In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Hemingway, Part 4: Revision-Rewriting
* Of Interest
Quote of the Day
“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know. And then continue from there.” Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway, Part 4: Revision-Rewriting
Wow, this Hemingway thing just keeps going. I think this will be the last post in what became a series, but I guess we’ll see.
Introduction
I’ve heard many assertions about writing advice from Hemingway. Some of them are true (for example, the Quote of the Day) and some are not.
I recently received another email from a different writer (thanks, JGV) who made some assertions that I’d heard before about Hemingway’s writing/revision/rewriting process.
For example, I’d heard before that the master recommends a (male) writer should stand up while typing in order to get in touch with his masculinity. (I presume gravity plays a role in that, and I personally doubt he did that.)
Hemingway allegedly also said that writing fiction is the hardest work there is. (I believe he said that, but I personally doubt he believed it.) There are dozens of other over the top examples of things he supposedly said that, when you take a breath and step back, don’t quite make sense, at least to me.
For example, I read somewhere (and wrote to my friend) that he used to read over every manuscript from the beginning, editing as he went, before he began each day’s work. (I don’t believe that either, though I suppose it’s possible.)
My friend called me on that one. He wrote “I believe [Hemingway] re-read what he’d written the day before and continued on. I also know he wrote and rewrote until he felt it was ‘right’.”
And of course there have always been various assertions regarding how many times Hemingway revised or rewrote a given novel. So I wondered whether he was including those little edits and read-overs as rewrites when he reported “rewriting” a given novel XX number of times.
And that thought served as the catalyst for this post.
In my response to my friend, I wrote a version of the following:
That’s what I do when I’m writing a novel. I cycle back over the previous day’s output at the beginning of each new day of writing, and I cycle back over what I wrote during each session before I begin the next writing session during the day.
Frankly, I only believe some of what Hemingway says about his process and even less of what others say about it. After all, his goal (and destiny) was to be the absolute best, which I believe he attained.
But that takes popularity and sales, and popularity and sales hinge in large part on readers, and a lot of that has to do with his mystique.
Dean’s even talked about that before. It sounds a lot more like a writer worked very hard (and therefore is more deserving of a reader’s money) if the writer makes it known that he struggled, etc., rewrote XX number of times, and so on.
As I’ve said in TNDJ numerous times, I’m very fortunate in that I can revise largely on the fly while in the creative subconscious (so cycling on the fly). That’s just how my brain/mind works. And then on top of that, I cycle back over my writing as I explained above.
So it follows that I could just as easily say I revise/rewrite multiple times per chapter or major scene, and then multiply that times the number of chapters in a given novel.
It would be impossible for me to accurately count the precise number of revisions I do (even not including all of the on-the-fly revisions) especially in say, a high-action scene.
Although I typically cycle through a major scene only once or twice before I begin writing again, if a high-action or high-tension scene is unfolding quickly and with a lot of detail, I might cycle over it five or six (or more) times to be sure I’ve included all the details of action and setting and to be sure I’ve gotten everything in the right sequence (the sequence in which the action actually occurred).
And of course, the purpose of every revision—whether it’s made quickly on the fly or during a dedicated cycling session—is to make that part of the story “feel right.”
Note that if I wrote on a typewriter like Hemingway did and kept all the pages I ripped out from behind the platen (covered with pencil or pen cross outs and revisions and edits) and all the retyped pages, that archive would serve as evidence of my process.
But unfortunately, I write on a laptop and I don’t bother to Save As a different file name with each revision. So there is no direct physical evidence of my own revision/rewriting process. You just have to take my word for it. Or not. And as you’ll see later, it doesn’t matter.
So for example, if I count all the revisions as rewrites in a 40-chapter novel, and even if only every fourth chapter is a high-action or high-tension scene, I could easily say I had to revise/rewrite that novel 80 times: Five times for each high-action or high-tension chapter (so that would be 10 chapters) and once for each remaining chapter (30 chapters).
Hmmm. Maybe I should start saying in my promo and sales copy that I do that. 🙂
Of course, large round numbers are less readily believable, so instead of saying I revise/rewrite 80 times I should make that 23 or 42 or 56 times instead.
But then, the purpose of TNDJ is to help smooth the learning curve for other writers, not to impress or entice readers. Plus I personally view all of that “Oh I worked so hard on this novel” wrist-on-the-forehead stuff as silly and meaningless. Which is probably a big reason I’m not a bestselling author with hundreds or thousands of adoring fans. 🙂
In the end, the writer’s process doesn’t matter.
- As a reader all that matters to me is the story and whether it pulls me in and moves me.
- And as a writer and student, what matters to me is HOW the writer puts the words on the page so the story pulls me in and moves me.
Which again is why I study Hemingway’s fiction, and not so much his life or even his writing process.
When I buy and read a book like Larry W. Phillips’ Ernest Hemingway on Writing or King’s On Writing or pretty much any of Lawrence Block’s books on writing, I’m looking for little epiphanies I haven’t seen before. Things that will cut my own learning curve.
But then, especially regarding Hemingway, that’s just me.
Of Interest
Hemingway Behind the Scenes A short video behind the making of Ken Burns’ Hemingway profile
Ernest Hemingway: The Paris Years An article from the archives of The Atlantic.
Thanks to JGV for both of the above links.